Industrial accident less serious than first thought

An employee at Urethane Innovators is loaded into an ambulance for transport to CarolinaEast Medical Center Wednesday.

Chuck Beckley/Sun Journal

By Bill Hand, Sun Journal Staff

Published: Wednesday, July 16, 2014 at 02:35 PM.

A life-flight helicopter was turned away when a reported chemical explosion at a company in the Craven County Industrial Park turned out to be a much smaller matter Wednesday morning.

The incident happened when an employee at Urethane Innovators at 403 Industrial Drive was burned in what general manager Tom Colson described as a “minor injury” at about 10 a.m. Wednesday.

“Somebody here panicked and said we had a chemical explosion and that a drum blew up,” Colson said.

An ambulance from the New Bern Craven County Rescue Squad was called to the scene along with a unit from the West of New Bern Fire Department, and a helicopter was called to transport the victim to Greenville’s Vidant Medical Center, if there had been chemical burns.

The helicopter arrived, approaching a landing at a nearby West of New Bern fire station before it was sent away empty.

Instead, the accident victim was transported to CarolinaEast Medical Center, where he was treated, released and was expected to return to work later in the day.

Colson said the incident involved machinery used in pouring operations in the production of urethane products.

A life-flight helicopter was turned away when a reported chemical explosion at a company in the Craven County Industrial Park turned out to be a much smaller matter Wednesday morning.

The incident happened when an employee at Urethane Innovators at 403 Industrial Drive was burned in what general manager Tom Colson described as a “minor injury” at about 10 a.m. Wednesday.

“Somebody here panicked and said we had a chemical explosion and that a drum blew up,” Colson said.

An ambulance from the New Bern Craven County Rescue Squad was called to the scene along with a unit from the West of New Bern Fire Department, and a helicopter was called to transport the victim to Greenville’s Vidant Medical Center, if there had been chemical burns.

The helicopter arrived, approaching a landing at a nearby West of New Bern fire station before it was sent away empty.

Instead, the accident victim was transported to CarolinaEast Medical Center, where he was treated, released and was expected to return to work later in the day.

Colson said the incident involved machinery used in pouring operations in the production of urethane products.

“As the machines are flushed after pouring operations, the flush goes into a barrel,” he said. “The materials are not supposed to be flammable.”

However, someone apparently put flammable objects into a drum before sealing it.

“We’re guessing they just weren’t thinking or [it was] by mistake,” Colson said.

The employee, who Colson believed violated company safety rules, used a torch around the drum. “There was a flash, his T-shirt got melted, a hole was put in it.”

Colson said the employee seemed to have a burn on his stomach, but not the serious burns initially reported.

“We have a great safety record,” he said. “There’s nothing really serious that happened here.”